Mechanisms

mechanisms of a thousand useful machines
creations of the creation, humanity.

No one knows the inventors’ names
&, anyway
compared to what has become
of what they snatched from nothing but potential
with refinement after refinement—
what they made was crude
yet exquisite as dandelion, salmon, or Saturn’s rings.

Beyond reverence, I’d learn to manipulate them
for my own benefit & everyone’s
except those who take advantage of others’
weakness, ignorance, & desperation
to expropriate & dominate.

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Previously posted @ Heavy Bear (USA).

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Picture: Wikimedia

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Ops series

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“Technology can be important but…failed to become economically viable without the complementary factors of skills and experience, or even attention to maintenance.” —Thomas Sowell, Advanced Economics

“Springs are wonderful things. When they are compressed or stretched by some force, they store energy. When that force is no longer applied they release the stored energy. This property allows them to smooth the ride in cars, help mattresses conform to our bodies, retract seat belts, and launch projectiles…. Hooke’s law of elasticity:…the force…stored in a spring is linearly related to the distance…the spring has been compressed (or stretched)…holds for many biological systems…. Of course…[a]ll springs have an elastic limit, beyond which the law fails.” —John V. Guttag, Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python

“Do more with less.” —Buckminster Fuller

“Use obstacles to develop capacities.” —Gurdjieff

“A convivial society should be designed to allow all its members the most autonomous action by means of tools least controlled by others…and not just large machines like cars or power stations…also…factories…and productive systems for intangible commodities such as…’education,’ ‘health,’ ‘knowledge,’ or ‘decisions’…all rationally designed devices be they artifacts or rules, codes, or operators.” —Ivan Illich, Tools For Conviviality

“…the world-alienation of man…out of it, and partly at least out of our own despair, did arise the tremendous structures of the human artifice we inhabit today….” —Hannah Arendt, Between Past and Future

“When you connect a motor to a load….”
—Stan Gibilisco, Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics

“A good algorithm is usually a better investment than a supercomputer.”
—Gilbert Strang, Computational Science and Engineering